(January 14, 2006) -- Stemming from Nov. 2004 LB City Council approval of a five year contract giving City Hall a financial stake in royalties if underground oil is found and extracted, LB city management approved an oil company plan to send trucks with vibration-inducing devices to create what city management called a temporary "very minor surface vibration" in the immediate vicinity of the trucks in hopes of pinpointing the oil.

As previously reported by LBReport.com, city management placed the plan -- publicly labelled a "geophysical survey" -- on hold on or about Jan. 10 after incensed Wrigley homeowners (where the first tests began Jan. 8) told City Hall their homes experienced shaking longer and stronger than represented. At the January 10 City Council meeting, city management indicated it has suspended permits it granted for the testing...for now.

But a color-coded map, obtained by LBReport.com from the City Clerk's office, indicates that by September 2005, city management planned to permit the procedure in neighborhoods spanning a large portion of LB within the area with a red border below.

In November 2004, the Council entered into a royalty-sharing contract with Signal Hill Petroleum, Inc. [SHPI] via a "consent calendar" item just days before Thanksgiving. The item reported:

"SHPI is proposing to lease approximately 1,100 acres of City mineral-fee property adjoining the Long Beach Oil Field to conduct the survey. The lease rate offered to the City is $15 per acre per year for a minimum of five years with no right to surface entry. Should the survey result in commercial production of mineral resources in the leased acreage, the City would receive a one-sixth royalty of gross revenues, which is the industry standard...The rental fee would generate approximately $15,000 per year to the Upland Oil Fund (SR 134) for the next five years. If mineral resources were commercially developed by SHPI, the Upland Oil Fund would realize unanticipated additional revenues through well permits, barrel tax, and royalties." The item drew no Council response although octogenarian Council communicator Thomas Murphy pulled it for discussion and read it aloud. [We failed to grasp its significance at the time].

On September 13, 2005, management agendized an informational report describing the anticipated testing as "inducing an acoustic wave from near the surface of the earth and listening for the echoes from deeper parts of the earth (much like ultra-sound is used to create pictures of unborn babies in their mother's wombs)." Management said it "consists of a line of specialized vibrator trucks, each containing a base plate that sends sound waves deep into the earth. At each location marked in red on the attached map, three or four vibrator trucks will occupy the location for less than ten minutes at a time and then move on to the next location. While virtually all of the sound waves are directed deep into the earth, a very minor surface vibration is also generated in the immediate vicinity of the trucks. This vibration will dissipate to a "zero level" very quickly as it travels away from the trucks." [extended text of this memo is posted below] The item prompted neither Council nor public discussion (and also escaped our attention).

Two days after the testing began, on January 10, 2006 Wrigley Association president Joan Greenwood told the LB City Council that her neighborhood was subject to subsidence and some homeowners reported damages to their property. Reached for comment on January 11 (after city management had revoked the testing permits), an official with the company's geophysical survey told LBReport.com the vibration-inducing trucks weren't capable of generating over about one one the Richter scale and the company had data to prove it. He said the company was awaiting an opportunity to discuss the matter with city management.

On January 11, 2006, LB Energy/Oil Properties chief Chris Garner indicated to LBReport.com that the company had done some tweaking of its equipment that effectively reduced the vibration to more closely resemble (his words) a large truck starting up.

Meanwhile, at the January 10 Signal Hill City Council meeting, two items related to the testing were pulled off the agenda. City Manager Ken Farfsing told the SH Council that Signal Hill Petroleum had called and asked to table [remove from the agenda] an item in which the company was scheduled to make a presentation on its "geophysical survey." SH city staff had separately agendized its own report on the survey...which was also removed at the request of city management.

And SH City Manager Farfsing added publicly, "Signal Hill Petroleum indicated that they were going to go back to the drawing board and probably do a much smaller seismic study." .

Parts of Lakewood are also indicated on the map...although it's unclear what the status of that city's stance on the testing is.

Back at LB City Hall, city management has agendized a January 17 report to the Council listed as "Receive and file the presentation relating to Geophysical Survey by Signal Hill Petroleum -- Update by Christopher Garner." A city management memo accompanying the agenda item wasn't immediately available online.

The September 2005 city management report to the City Council stated in salient part as follows: